My little sister asking me if we’d ever be able to afford the fancy meals seen on television is what inspired me to go to college. I was only twelve at the time, but the sour taste in my mouth as I told her that I didn’t know lingered, even as my mother pulled us away from the store window. When I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I simply answered whatever would make me the most money. A lot of people in my life laughed this off, and just told me I had plenty of time to decide. It continued that way until I entered high school, because my mother decided for me that I was to go to a STEM career high school. I was apathetic to the two paths presented before me, so my mother put me into the medicine pathway, where I only spent a month before begging my mother to put me in the other pathway, engineering, because I couldn’t handle all of the blood without throwing up. She obliged me, and that choice would start my journey through the complicated, yet fascinating world of engineering, where I still am today, now in college. I am a queer woman of color, so from the beginning I was always the odd one out, the last one picked in team projects, the one who was questioned about her answers more than her male peers. This led to a lonely first year in high school, and I initially thought I was just going to finish up high school to please my mom, then see what would come after. In my second year of high school though, everything changed, because that was when I was introduced to my wonderful engineering teacher, who would go on to teach me architecture, soldering, woodworking, HTML, C++, and most importantly, how someone who was a minority could shine in the engineering industry. My engineering teacher was a woman, who was never ashamed of her femininity, always coming to school dressed in a sharp suit and heels that made her, already tall, self tower over everyone. I wanted to be her so badly, I wanted to be an inspiration to young women, Latinos, and queer folk alike, so, I walked over to her desk, and I asked her how she got to where she was. She indulged my questioning, telling me how she came from a poor family, how she always wanted to build a better future for her sister and mother, and how the only way she found she could do that is by going to college. This struck a chord in me, reminding me of the time that my sister asked about the fancy meals on the television, all the times my sister asked for something she saw in the stores, how my mother always said no. My mother herself never bought herself the inexpensive makeup I always saw her looking at, saying the money could be used in better places, and that she didn’t need them. Right there in that classroom, I decided that I wanted to go to college, if not for my own selfish reasons of wanting to be admired and an inspiration, then to give my family the space to comfortably say they wanted something ‘unnecessary’ like a visit to a nail salon, or a fancy meal at an Olive Garden. I would do it for them, but I would also do it for myself, to give myself the freedom to buy myself everything I wanted growing up.

My family of four is supported by my single mother who works ten hour days yet she only manages to make around nine thousand dollars a year. We stretch that amount as much as possible throughout the year but as a result we had no money saved up to pay for my higher education. Currently, I’m living on my own, two hours away from my family, and I have to pay for everything on my own through scholarships and programs. My rent, utilities, and food costs total to about one thousand every month, and that doesn’t include any textbook or extra school fees that may come up. Last year, even though FAFSA helped me out a lot, I still had to work in order to cover the rest of my living costs. This scholarship would allow me to just focus on my studying for a month, which would prove especially useful during finals month, as I wouldn’t have to worry about balancing my work schedule and my studying schedule. The only thing I would have to worry about during that free month from work would be what the quadratic formula is, not where I’ll live if I can’t make rent this month. My financial situation has always been like this, but I was lucky enough to be introduced to the engineering field in ninth grade through my high school. I received my high school education from a career high school that had a focus on engineering. Throughout the four years at my high school, I learned about the many facets of engineering, as well as their basic tasks and what they contributed to the world. This is where I found my love for electrical engineering, especially when it came to the concepts of soldering, making breadboards, and Boolean Algebra. All of these topics were easily what I excelled at the most, and I even created a small project outside of class time with the scraps of wire that my teacher allowed me to take. When it came time to decide what universities to apply to, I sat down with my engineering teacher and I asked what career would encompass those key jobs, and he said electrical engineering. Unfortunately, even though I was accepted to most of the schools I applied for, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to go to them without massively burdening myself and my family financially. I ultimately decided to go to a community college so I could still continue my education without going into debt, and this scholarship would help me immensely with this plan.

My education goal is to become an engineering teacher so I can give back to the communities that shaped who I am today. My mother taught me from a very early age that the world would be cruel to me because of things I could not control, but that it was up to me to keep pushing on and to prove to the world that I was strong enough to get what I want despite my differences. I want to endow that mindset to young Latinos, girls, and queer folk alike, that they can be successful in a STEM field if they fight hard enough for their right to gain higher education. Presently, I am working towards getting a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, and after I am going to get my teaching certification so I can teach engineering to high school students. I grew up in poverty, my single mother having to support herself, me, and my two siblings on only around nine thousand dollars a year. I didn’t have any time during high school to have a job, as my mom told me to focus on my education and didn’t allow me to get a job during the school year. Unfortunately, as a result, I had no money saved up to attend any of the universities that offered me acceptance, nor could I ask my family for financial assistance to pay for my tuition. After a lot of research and crying, I discovered that community colleges didn’t make in-state students pay tuition, and so after a long conversation with my mom, I decided to attend a community college two hours from my hometown. I could’ve gone to the community college in my hometown, but I decided to move away so I could start learning how to live on my own in an environment where I could go back home if anything went wrong. However, the rent in the area I live in is very high, and while my rent is lower than average, it’s by no means cheap, as I pay one thousand a month for where I live. This includes most utilities, thankfully, but I still have to pay for gas, food, and any extra school supplies I need, as while I don’t pay tuition, the program doesn’t cover textbooks and the like. For the past year since moving out here, I have had to work for the entirety of fall alongside being a full time student, but even that wasn’t enough money to keep me afloat. During my senior year, I applied to many scholarships like this one, as I knew that I’d only be able to get support for my education if I sought it out. This scholarship will go towards my extra school costs, as I plan on taking coding, engineering, and math classes next fall semester, and based on my research through my teachers, I know that I’ll have to buy textbooks that each cost three hundred dollars each. The rest I plan to save for the spring semester because my streak of classes with expensive textbooks will continue, and anything that remains will go to my rent so I can continue my education the following year. I currently have all A’s in my classes, I know that I can be a successful engineer, I just need the finances to be able to live without worrying about my next meal, that is all I need.